Gordian Cipher:Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

This is why there are / were no gay people in science fiction films and books set in the future. Think about it. Star Trek? No gay people. And why is that? I always just assumed they came up with a 'cure,' and gay people willingly took it, rather than be rejected by half of society.

Gordian Cipher:Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

If Western medicine can't find a cure, alternative medicine surely can. I suggest homo-opathy. If you take small doses of diluted gay you might just get cured! Failing that, surely crackupuncture or guyropraxy might help.

Cythraul:Gordian Cipher: Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

This is why there are / were no gay people in science fiction films and books set in the future. Think about it. Star Trek? No gay people. And why is that? I always just assumed they came up with a 'cure,' and gay people willingly took it, rather than be rejected by half of society.

At a press conference in 1989 announcing that Patrick Stewart had been cast as Captain Picard:

Reporter: Surely they would have cured baldness by the 24th century.Gene Roddenberry: In the 24th century, they wouldn't care.

Gordian Cipher:Cythraul: Gordian Cipher: Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

This is why there are / were no gay people in science fiction films and books set in the future. Think about it. Star Trek? No gay people. And why is that? I always just assumed they came up with a 'cure,' and gay people willingly took it, rather than be rejected by half of society.

At a press conference in 1989 announcing that Patrick Stewart had been cast as Captain Picard:

Reporter: Surely they would have cured baldness by the 24th century.Gene Roddenberry: In the 24th century, they wouldn't care.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. There was a bald character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. There were no gay characters on TNG. There were characters who flirted with the issue, or topics of an ambiguous nature that implied homosexuality, but no gay characters.

Cythraul:Buttknuckle: I've noticed that, amongst my friends and I, that the amount of older brothers that you have seems like a common thread.

I have two older brothers, one older sister.

I could swear I read a study somewhere that said something along the lines of the youngest son is the most likely to be gay. This is only if he has older brothers though, if he has older sisters only then there is apparently no effect. I think it has something to do with lowered levels of testosterone in the womb by the time the youngest son is there.

I like to ask conservatives if they would be in favor of government regulation of industry if they learned the chemicals being put into products were turning people gay. It turns into a fun thought experiment until their heads explode.

Buttknuckle:I've noticed that, amongst my friends and I, that the amount of older brothers that you have seems like a common thread.

That might be a thing. It makes sense for Darwinian selection. As a tribe/community reaches a certain number of children, you want a certain percentage to become childless adults that can help raise or adopt children of relatives. It increases the overall survival rate of the tribe.

Cythraul:Gordian Cipher: Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

This is why there are / were no gay people in science fiction films and books set in the future. Think about it. Star Trek? No gay people. And why is that? I always just assumed they came up with a 'cure,' and gay people willingly took it, rather than be rejected by half of society.

I always assumed it was done involuntarily during one of those dark episodes of human history that Q kept bringing up.

Cythraul:I'm not sure what you're getting at here. There was a bald character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. There were no gay characters on TNG. There were characters who flirted with the issue, or topics of an ambiguous nature that implied homosexuality, but no gay characters.

Bald people were represented. Gay people? Not at all.

Considering how awful TNG was - I don't consider the absence of a major gay character a bad thing.

SarahDiddle:Cythraul: Buttknuckle: I've noticed that, amongst my friends and I, that the amount of older brothers that you have seems like a common thread.

I have two older brothers, one older sister.

I could swear I read a study somewhere that said something along the lines of the youngest son is the most likely to be gay. This is only if he has older brothers though, if he has older sisters only then there is apparently no effect. I think it has something to do with lowered levels of testosterone in the womb by the time the youngest son is there.

/epigenetics are pretty cool

Does that affect the amount of testosterone produced by a gay man after birth? Because from what I've read, they produce the same amount as straight men.

Lumpmoose:That might be a thing. It makes sense for Darwinian selection. As a tribe/community reaches a certain number of children, you want a certain percentage to become childless adults that can help raise or adopt children of relatives. It increases the overall survival rate of the tribe.

SarahDiddle:Cythraul: Buttknuckle: I've noticed that, amongst my friends and I, that the amount of older brothers that you have seems like a common thread.

I have two older brothers, one older sister.

I could swear I read a study somewhere that said something along the lines of the youngest son is the most likely to be gay. This is only if he has older brothers though, if he has older sisters only then there is apparently no effect. I think it has something to do with lowered levels of testosterone in the womb by the time the youngest son is there.

/epigenetics are pretty cool

I have two half-siblings - both older sisters (one from my dad's first marriage, one from my mom's).

That said, your statement about levels of testosterone is interesting, as my half-sister from my mother's marriage (and the only sibling with whom I was raised) is somewhat masculine (although heterosexual) in build and attitude.

Gordian Cipher:Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

Actually hormone therapy during pregnancy would be a lot easier then some sort of gene therapy. Just pointing out this doesn't preclude preventative measures during conception and pregnancy, just because hardcoded genes aren't involved.

Cythraul:Gordian Cipher: Good. Finding a 'gay gene' would just mean that some well-funded asshat would start working on a cure.

This is why there are / were no gay people in science fiction films and books set in the future. Think about it. Star Trek? No gay people. And why is that? I always just assumed they came up with a 'cure,' and gay people willingly took it, rather than be rejected by half of society.

Probably more that science fiction is an imagined future, seen inevitably through the lens of the present, and shaped by what is seen as normal in the present or what the author knows in his life.

In old science fiction, there weren't a lot of black people. I don't think they believed they'd find a cure for being black, they just didn't know a lot of black people when writing it.